arXiv subjects

Carlo F. Manara

Publications and source records attributed to Carlo F. Manara.

81 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2017

Protoplanetary disc `isochrones' and the evolution of discs in the $\dot{M}-M_{\rm d}$ plane

In this paper, we compare simple viscous diffusion models for the disc evolution with the results of recent surveys of the properties of young protoplanetary discs. We introduce the useful concept of `disc isochrones' in the accretion rate - disc mass plane and explore a set of Montecarlo realization of disc initial conditions. We find that such simple viscous models can provide a remarkable agreement with the available data in the Lupus star forming region, with the key requirement that the average viscous evolutionary timescale of the discs is comparable to the cluster age. Our models produce naturally a correlation between mass accretion rate and disc mass that is shallower than linear, contrary to previous results and in agreement with observations. We also predict that a linear correlation, with a tighter scatter, should be found for more evolved disc populations. Finally, we find that such viscous models can reproduce the observations in the Lupus region only in the assumption that the efficiency of angular momentum transport is a growing function of radius, thus putting interesting constraints on the nature of the microscopic processes that lead to disc accretion.

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arXiv2017

Constraints from Dust Mass and Mass Accretion Rate Measurements on Angular Momentum Transport in Protoplanetary Disks

We investigate the relation between disk mass and mass accretion rate to constrain the mechanism of angular momentum transport in protoplanetary disks. Dust mass and mass accretion rate in Chamaeleon I are correlated with a slope close to linear, similar to the one recently identified in Lupus. We investigate the effect of stellar mass and find that the intrinsic scatter around the best-fit Mdust-Mstar and Macc-Mstar relations is uncorrelated. Disks with a constant alpha viscosity can fit the observed relations between dust mass, mass accretion rate, and stellar mass, but over-predict the strength of the correlation between disk mass and mass accretion rate when using standard initial conditions. We find two possible solutions. 1) The observed scatter in Mdust and Macc is not primoridal, but arises from additional physical processes or uncertainties in estimating the disk gas mass. Most likely grain growth and radial drift affect the observable dust mass, while variability on large time scales affects the mass accretion rates. 2) The observed scatter is primordial, but disks have not evolved substantially at the age of Lupus and Chamaeleon I due to a low viscosity or a large initial disk radius. More accurate estimates of the disk mass and gas disk sizes in a large sample of protoplanetary disks, either through direct observations of the gas or spatially resolved multi-wavelength observations of the dust with ALMA, are needed to discriminate between both scenarios or to constrain alternative angular momentum transport mechanisms such as MHD disk winds.

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arXiv2017

An ALMA Survey of CO isotopologue emission from Protoplanetary Disks in Chamaeleon I

The mass of a protoplanetary disk limits the formation and future growth of any planet. Masses of protoplanetary disks are usually calculated from measurements of the dust continuum emission by assuming an interstellar gas-to-dust ratio. To investigate the utility of CO as an alternate probe of disk mass, we use ALMA to survey $^{13}$CO and C$^{18}$O J = $3-2$ line emission from a sample of 93 protoplanetary disks around stars and brown dwarfs with masses from 0.03 -- 2 M$_{\odot}$ in the nearby Chamaeleon I star-forming region. We detect $^{13}$CO emission from 17 sources and C$^{18}$O from only one source. Gas masses for disks are then estimated by comparing the CO line luminosities to results from published disk models that include CO freeze-out and isotope-selective photodissociation. Under the assumption of a typical ISM CO-to-H$_2$ ratios of $10^{-4}$, the resulting gas masses are implausibly low, with an average gas mass of $\sim$ 0.05 M$_{Jup}$ as inferred from the average flux of stacked $^{13}$CO lines. The low gas masses and gas-to-dust ratios for Cha I disks are both consistent with similar results from disks in the Lupus star-forming region. The faint CO line emission may instead be explained if disks have much higher gas masses, but freeze-out of CO or complex C-bearing molecules is underestimated in disk models. The conversion of CO flux to CO gas mass also suffers from uncertainties in disk structures, which could affect gas temperatures. CO emission lines will only be a good tracer of the disk mass when models for C and CO depletion are confirmed to be accurate.

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arXiv2017

ALMA Survey of Lupus Protoplanetary Disks I: Dust and Gas Masses

We present the first high-resolution sub-mm survey of both dust and gas for a large population of protoplanetary disks. Characterizing fundamental properties of protoplanetary disks on a statistical level is critical to understanding how disks evolve into the diverse exoplanet population. We use ALMA to survey 89 protoplanetary disks around stars with $M_{\ast}>0.1~M_{\odot}$ in the young (1--3~Myr), nearby (150--200~pc) Lupus complex. Our observations cover the 890~$μ$m continuum and the $^{13}$CO and C$^{18}$O 3--2 lines. We use the sub-mm continuum to constrain $M_{\rm dust}$ to a few Martian masses (0.2--0.4~$M_{\oplus}$) and the CO isotopologue lines to constrain $M_{\rm gas}$ to roughly a Jupiter mass (assuming ISM-like $\rm {[CO]/[H_2]}$ abundance). Of 89 sources, we detect 62 in continuum, 36 in $^{13}$CO, and 11 in C$^{18}$O at $>3σ$ significance. Stacking individually undetected sources limits their average dust mass to $\lesssim6$ Lunar masses (0.03~$M_{\oplus}$), indicating rapid evolution once disk clearing begins. We find a positive correlation between $M_{\rm dust}$ and $M_{\ast}$, and present the first evidence for a positive correlation between $M_{\rm gas}$ and $M_{\ast}$, which may explain the dependence of giant planet frequency on host star mass. The mean dust mass in Lupus is 3$\times$ higher than in Upper Sco, while the dust mass distributions in Lupus and Taurus are statistically indistinguishable. Most detected disks have $M_{\rm gas}\lesssim1~M_{\rm Jup}$ and gas-to-dust ratios $<100$, assuming ISM-like $\rm {[CO]/[H_2]}$ abundance; unless CO is very depleted, the inferred gas depletion indicates that planet formation is well underway by a few Myr and may explain the unexpected prevalence of super-Earths in the exoplanet population.

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arXiv2017

An ALMA Survey of Protoplanetary Disks in the $σ$ Orionis Cluster

The $σ$ Orionis cluster is important for studying protoplanetary disk evolution, as its intermediate age ($\sim$3-5 Myr) is comparable to the median disk lifetime. We use ALMA to conduct a high-sensitivity survey of dust and gas in 92 protoplanetary disks around $σ$ Orionis members with $M_{\ast}\gtrsim0.1 M_{\odot}$. Our observations cover the 1.33 mm continuum and several CO $J=2-1$ lines: out of 92 sources, we detect 37 in the mm continuum and six in $^{12}$CO, three in $^{13}$CO, and none in C$^{18}$O. Using the continuum emission to estimate dust mass, we find only 11 disks with $M_{\rm dust}\gtrsim10 M_{\oplus}$, indicating that after only a few Myr of evolution most disks lack sufficient dust to form giant planet cores. Stacking the individually undetected continuum sources limits their average dust mass to 5$\times$ lower than that of the faintest detected disk, supporting theoretical models that indicate rapid dissipation once disk clearing begins. Comparing the protoplanetary disk population in $σ$ Orionis to those of other star-forming regions supports the steady decline in average dust mass and the steepening of the $M_{\rm dust}$-$M_{\ast}$ relation with age; studying these evolutionary trends can inform the relative importance of different disk processes during key eras of planet formation. External photoevaporation from the central O9 star is influencing disk evolution throughout the region: dust masses clearly decline with decreasing separation from the photoionizing source, and the handful of CO detections exist at projected separations $>1.5$ pc. Collectively, our findings indicate that giant planet formation is inherently rare and/or well underway by a few Myr of age.

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arXiv2017

Constraining proto-planetary disc evolution using accretion rate and disc mass measurements: the usefulness of the dimensionless accretion parameter

We explore how measurements of protoplanetary disc masses and accretion rates provided by surveys of star forming regions can be analysed via the dimensionless accretion parameter, which we define as the product of the accretion rate and stellar age divided by the disc mass. By extending and generalising the study of Jones et al (2012), we demonstrate that this parameter should be less than or of order unity for a wide range of evolutionary scenarios, rising above unity only during the final stages of outside in clearing by external photoevaporation. We use this result to assess the reliability of disc mass estimates derived from CO isotopologues and submm continuum emission by examining the distribution of accretion efficiencies in regions which are not subject to external photoevaporation. We find that while dust based mass estimates produce results compatible with theoretical expectations assuming canonical dust/gas ratio, the systematically lower CO based estimates yield accretion efficiencies significantly above unity in contrast with the theory. This finding provides additional evidence that CO based disc masses are an under-estimate, in line with arguments that have been made on the basis of chemical modelling of relatively small samples. On the other hand, we demonstrate that dust based mass estimates are sufficiently accurate to reveal distinctly higher accretion efficiencies in the Trapezium cluster, where this result is expected given the evident importance of external photoevaporation. We therefore propose the dimensionless accretion parameter as a new diagnostic of external photoevaporation in other star forming regions.

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arXiv2016

Lupus disks with faint CO isotopologues: low gas/dust or large carbon depletion?

An era has started in which gas and dust can be observed independently in protoplanetary disks, thanks to the recent surveys with ALMA. The first near-complete high-resolution disk survey in both dust and gas in a single star-forming region has been carried out in Lupus, finding surprisingly low gas/dust ratios. The goal of this work is to fully exploit CO isotopologues observations in Lupus, comparing them with physical-chemical model results, in order to obtain gas masses for a large number of disks. We have employed physical-chemical models to analyze continuum and CO isotopologues observations of Lupus disks, including isotope-selective processes and freeze-out. Employing also the ALMA 13CO-only detections, disk gas masses have been calculated for a total of 34 sources, expanding the sample of 10 disks studied by Ansdell et al. (2016), where also C18O was detected. We confirm that overall gas-masses are very low, often smaller than 1 $M_{\rm J}$, if volatile carbon is not depleted. Accordingly, global gas/dust ratios predominantly between 1 and 10. Low CO-based gas masses and gas/dust ratios may indicate rapid loss of gas, or alternatively chemical evolution, e.g. via sequestering of carbon from CO to more complex molecules, or carbon locked up in larger bodies. Current ALMA observations cannot distinguish between these two hypotheses. We have simulated both scenarios, but chemical model results do not allow us to rule out one of the two. Assuming that all Lupus disks have evolved mainly due to viscous processes over the past few Myr, the observed correlation between the current mass accretion rate and dust mass found by Manara et al. (2016) implies a constant gas-to-dust ratio, which is close to 100 based on the observed $M_{\rm disk}/\dot{M}_{\rm acc}$ ratio. This in turn points to a scenario in which carbon depletion is responsible for the low CO isotopologue line luminosities.

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arXiv2014

Strong Biases in Estimating the Time Dependence of Mass Accretion Rates in Young Stars

The temporal decay of mass accretion in young stars is a fundamental tracer of the early evolution of circumstellar disks. Through population syntheses, we study how correlated uncertainties between the estimated parameters of young stars (luminosity, temperature, mass, age) and mass accretion rates Mdot, as well as observational selection effects, can bias the temporal decay of mass accretion rates (Mdot t^-eta) inferred from a comparison of measured Mdot with isochronal ages in young stellar clusters. We find that the presence of realistic uncertainties reduces the measured value of eta by up to a factor of 3, leading to the inference of shallower decays than the true value. This suggests a much faster temporal decay of Mdot than generally assumed. When considering the minimum uncertainties in ages affecting the Orion Nebula Cluster, the observed value eta~1.4, typical of Galactic star forming regions, can only be reproduced if the real decay exponent is eta>4. This effect becomes more severe if one assumes that observational uncertainties are larger, as required by some fast star formation scenarios. Our analysis shows that while selection effects due to sample incompleteness do bias eta, they can not alter this main result and strengthen it in many cases. A remaining uncertainty in our work is that it applies to the most commonly used and simple relationship between Mdot, the accretion luminosity and the stellar parameters. We briefly explore how a more complex interplay between these quantities might change the results.

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arXiv2013

A UV-to-MIR monitoring of DR Tau: exploring how water vapor in the planet formation region of the disk is affected by stellar accretion variability

Young stars are known to show variability due to non-steady mass accretion rate from their circumstellar disks. Accretion flares can produce strong energetic irradiation and heating that may affect the disk in the planet formation region, close to the central star. During an extreme accretion outburst in the young star EX Lupi, the prototype of EXor variables, remarkable changes in molecular gas emission from $\sim1$ AU in the disk have recently been observed (Banzatti et al. 2012). Here, we focus on water vapor and explore how it is affected by variable accretion luminosity in T Tauri stars. We monitored a young highly variable solar-mass star, DR Tau, using simultaneously two high/medium-resolution ESO-VLT spectrographs: VISIR at 12.4 $μ$m to observe water lines from the disk, and X-shooter covering from 0.3 to 2.5 $μ$m to constrain the stellar accretion. Three epochs spanning timescales from several days to several weeks were obtained. Accretion luminosity was estimated to change within a factor $\sim2$, and no change in water emission was detected at a significant level. In comparison to EX Lupi and EXor outbursts, DR Tau suggests that the less long-lived and weaker variability phenomena typical of T Tauri stars may leave water at planet-forming radii in the disk mostly unaffected. We propose that these systems may provide evidence for two processes that act over different timescales: UV photochemistry in the disk atmosphere (faster) and heating of the disk deeper layers (slower).

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